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Sit, CuJo! Accident or not, Leafs goalie deserves suspension
Posted: Tuesday April 18, 2000 06:53 PM
By Mike Ulmer, Toronto Sun KANATA, Ont. -- If he had the fit, you can't acquit. Curtis Joseph should be suspended for the fourth game of the NHL Eastern Conference quarter-final for bumping referee Mick McGeough last night. There are mitigating circumstances by the truckload, the league's sudden antipathy toward goalies chief among them, but only one fact about last night's wild display by the Maple Leafs goaltender stands above the rest. He hit him. At 14:17 of the third period, an instant after Rob Zamuner's goal whizzed by him, Joseph raced toward McGeough, lost his balance and the two collided with McGeough ending up on top. After the game, Joseph stated the obvious: It was an accident.
"If I was going to do anything to the referee, which I would never do, I wouldn't slide into him and let him land on top of me," he said. Right as rain. McGeough agreed. "He felt the goalie fell," director of officiating Bryan Lewis said, speaking for McGeough, "and he (McGeough) fell on top of him." McGeough seems bent on letting the incident pass. "They paid with the loss of a player," McGeough said, citing the 10-minute misconduct to Joseph served by Cory Cross. Intent is not a mitigating factor. Contact, and violent contact is. NOT HIS JOB It is not Curtis Joseph's job, not Dominik Hasek's job, not any goaltender's job since the Habs' Bill Durnan was the last to wear a C in the nets, to argue with officials. That's what captains and alternate captains and coaches do. Mick McGeough and Rob Shick are the ultimate authorities. This is not an official accidentally tripping over a stick. This is an out-of-control goaltender, charging toward the referee after a call has not gone his way and cutting the legs out from under him, albeit accidentally. Ask yourself this: Had a position player blitzed an official with the game at a boiling point and failed to stop an inch short, would there have been a penalty? Would there have been a suspension? If you answered yes, you win the Maytag washer-dryer. Joseph, an ardent family man, worried after the game that his three children would be disappointed with him. "I don't like the way I reacted, obviously it's an emotional game," Joseph said. "Now I have to explain to my kids why I was so mad." But it's not just his kids he owes an explanation, it's everybody else's kids as well. Every year, one-third of the officials who work minor hockey quit. The biggest reason is abuse, by adults who lose control and either verbally or physically abuse an official. And what message does the lack of a suspension bring them? Cross said he didn't know what happened on the play that sent Joseph into a fit. Joseph doesn't know what happened. 'HARD SAVE' "I'll have to watch the replay," Joseph said, "but from going from standing with two feet at the end of the crease to having one leg inside the net, well, that's a hard save." What a mess. The Philadelphia Flyers score a goal by shooting the puck through the net, and the goal stands. Open season on goaltenders has been declared and Joseph's reaction guarantees plenty more to come. Now the league is faced with having to decide whether suspending one of its marquee players over an incident predicated by the league's own actions, the abysmal lack of protection for goaltenders, the demise of the crease rule and the dismissal of replay as a valid officiating tool. It will be hard, probably too hard for the gentlemen in New York to stand up for one of their officials. It's time that they did. Mike Ulmer's column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. He can be reached by e-mail at mike.ulmer@tor.sunpub.com
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